Decentralizing: End Vision

Every time I hop in my car, I have a destination in mind. There are a few times when I have driven just to drive, and I was young enough and unattached enough that I could do just that. When I did, I never got lost but I never ended up anywhere either. I just used up some fuel and time. It is easy to get so focused on doing ministry that we lose sight of our end vision. It can feel like driving just to drive. Sometimes we give little attention to key questions like:

Why do we exist?

What is success?

Without a crystal-clear vision we cannot know if we are always on the right track. It can be surprisingly easy to let the means become the end and the end becomes the means to the end.

A program might be a means to achieve the end vision, but it should never become the vision itself. God has changed the lives of many students through worship services on my campus and so many others and I am so thankful for that. On my largest and most central campus, there are around 10 solid evangelical campus ministries. If you add up the number of students who attend any of these campus ministries along with the number of those who attend church, only about 1,000 of the 18,000 students on campus identify with Jesus. It’s not a scientific count by any means, but lostness on campus is so vast that it’s impossible to miss. I can’t ignore it and I can’t pretend that what we have been doing will ever be so successful that we could expect to have a significant impact on that lostness.

Why do we exist?BCM of the High Country exists to equip students to multiply gospel communities.

What is success?We will be successful when there is No Place Left without a gospel presence on our campus and No Campus Left without a gospel presence in the High Country. We have 18,000 students at Appalachian State University and a combined total of 83,283 students on our 14 campuses. Most of these 14 campuses lack a gospel presence and they aren’t on anyone else’s radar.

Burning the ShipsThis year we cancelled our weekly gathering, returned our keys to the church facility where we hosted those gatherings, and sold our sound equipment. It hasn’t been a welcome shift with some students, but this is the right way forward. We will focus all of our time and attention on multiplying disciples and movements. The need is far too great to do the same old things, assuming they will make a significant impact on lostness. I believe this is such an important move for us and I am learning so much along the way that I want to share this with you in hopes that you might find it useful and encouraging.